Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press

The Jerusalem Post comments on the successful final trial of the David’s Sling air defense system, which coincidentally occurred on the same day Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to avenge the killing of terrorist Samir Kuntar (allegedly by the IAF), and notes that the new system complements two existing systems – Iron Dome and the Arrow – that together are able to provide “defense against rockets and missiles of different sizes and with different ranges and trajectories.” The editor adds that while these systems are clearly not foolproof, “missile defenses will continue to fulfill a prominent role in Israel’s strategic approach to protecting the country from both conventional and non-conventional missile and rocket threats in the years ahead,” and concludes: “David’s Sling, Iron Dome and the Arrow are designed to deter, and if deterrence fails, to protect and facilitate an overwhelming response to Israel’s many military threats.”

Haaretz is concerned by reports accusing the Shin Bet security service of using interrogations methods that may be tantamount to torture, and asserts: “Using torture is unacceptable both because of the severe injury it causes to a person’s body and dignity, and because torture often results in false confessions.” The editor contends that “Torture is a tool of benighted regimes, which use it to suppress their own civilian populations,” and asserts: “Human and civil rights aren’t the property of any particular national, ethnic or religious group; everyone deserves to enjoy them.”

Yediot Aharonot comments on the bill to shut down all commercial activity on Shabbat, and contends that it has nothing to do with a social outlook, but is rather “a bill of anti-social and religious party-coalition coercion.” The author believes that closing commerce on Shabbat will lead to a mass flow of Israeli Jews to shopping centers in the non-Jewish sector, and states that the bill “is totalitarian in its scope, unfair in its wording and anti-social in its outcome. It doesn’t serve Jewish tradition, but rather the large commercial chains and the public activists of the ultra-Orthodox parties, which are a main part of the coalition.”

Israel Hayom contends that “The long-standing alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is not breaking down, but the relations between the two are not as wonderful as they once were.” The author notes that due to this, pragmatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia may be feasible, and definitely “justifies Jerusalem’s conducting diplomatic activity with Riyadh.”